Autoassigned IP address

Windows 98SE uses Automatic Private IP addressing. When the NIC is set to obtain IP automatically, and there is no DHCP Server present, it will assign itself the private IP address you are seeing. This can be most easily solved by adding a static IP to the NIC. This is done by design and can be disabled through the registry, but I do NOT recommend editing the registry in your case. Try asking your network admin for a static IP that will pertain to your laptop only. I'm sure IT policy willgovern that issue. Another thing you try is making a seperate Hardware profile for home (disable the NIC) and LAN (NIC enabled). Either option works great. It's up to you to decide.

Another idea is to install a network configuration switching piece of software. We tried NetSwitcher available from www.netswitcher.com for $9 per machine. All of our laptop users LOVE it. It allows you to create any number of profiles and switch between them with only a click or two of the mouse and a reboot. For example, if a laptop user works in 3 different offices, all with different subnets and no DHCP and also uses it at home, you just set up 4 different network profiles, each with its own IP settings. It also includes Netware clients, Internet Explorer proxy and connection settings, Eudora and Outlook settings, etc... I have nothing to do with this company except to say that I'm a satisfied customer. (It's available for a 30-day free trial too!)

Realistically, your laptop should have two hardware profiles. One for on the network and one for off the network. Why would you want the nic card drivers loaded onto it affecting performance when you do not require it? The reason your bootup is slowis that it is waiting for a DHCP server to give it an address. Setup a different hardware profile, during bootup you will be given the choice as to which hardware profile you wish to use.
Good luck!

Mike

There's probobly some network resrouces you're tryin to access by default (like a mapped drive for instance). Releasing your IP isn't going to do anything useful because there's still no network connection. The same thing would happen if you we'rerunning NetBEUI instead of TCP. If you are mapping network drives, I would disconect them before you shut down and then reboot and see if you have any improvement. After that, talk to your network admins and see if there's anything they push that would want to access something across the network.

Ideally, if you can, upgrade it to 2000 and then run your login as a cached setting when you're not hooked to the network. 98 will not do this.

Good luck

Mark

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